Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Paris Apartment, by Lucy Foley

17 reviews

lakea's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Classism, Alcoholism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Trafficking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Child death, Suicide, Stalking, Gun violence, Grief, Drug use, Misogyny, and Kidnapping

Minor: Suicide

aformeracceleratedreader's review

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

Foley does it again! It is another super good read for me. Do I think things wrapped up a little too nicely in the end? Yes, but I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. 
Def check trigger/content warnings tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse, Infidelity, Classism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Infertility, and Vomit

mari_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book had me on every page, almost impossible to put down. This is truely a suspense novel that is creepy, eerie, violent and charged in every interaction. I enjoyed the pacing thoroughly, and loved how the characters get more and more depraved with time. I thought the ending felt a bit rushed for how deeply invested we are in all the subplots of the characters with real issues but not mad about it. The family is complex and truly disturbed. Knocking off a fraction of the star because I felt like the backstory of Jess and Ben was somehow the least believable part of the book. This is not a book where anyone is a good person, or a likeable person - so just be warned!z  I am pleasantly surprised how different this feels from The Guest book but it’s clearly in her style. I look forward to reading more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Blood, Murder, Pedophilia, and Police brutality

iwasalilacsky's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

 Thoughts:

Shook! 😲

Did I guess some of the plot? Yes, but was also genuinely surprised with the multiple twists this book gave. It got darker and more wild than I expected it to go. I know we more often than not enjoy finding the characters we love, but with the group of people we get living in this Parisian apartment, I enjoyed to dislike them immensely.

Jess, the half-sister of Ben, is coming to stay in Paris after a work situation that left her afraid of the repercussions of what she did. After reluctantly receiving confirmation from him that she could stay at his apartment, she arrives to find Ben not answering his phone or the door. Without any help from the concierge or other tenants in the building, she breaks into the apartment. With no sign of him being there, she comes to the discovery that he is missing. In her search to find him, she meets the others living in the building who are not very friendly to say the least, and finds that everything is not what it seems.

Finally read a thriller this year that I can get behind. I am looking forward to more reads by Lucy Foley.

Would I recommend this and to who:
Yes! To those who love a good mystery/thriller. I highly recommend the audiobook as the pace leaves it to be very suspenseful, and the different accents for each character is highly entertaining.
Format:
Audiobook
How did I discover this:
Book released in February. Added it to my TBR once I read the synopsis knowing I’ll read it this year. After a pretty decently long wait, I received it in the Libby app to listen to.
Pace:
Medium/Long-ish
Cover thoughts:
Simple, but a vibe. Fits the book!
POV:
Multi – Jess (mainly), Ben, Sophie, Concierge, Mimi, & Nick

Quotes:
“I simply wanted someone to love. Wholehearted, unreserved, requited.”

“I only hope she knows what she's doing. Climbing so high, so quickly: it only makes for further to fall.”

“You know, I read somewhere that sixty percent of us can’t go more than ten minutes without lying. Little slippages to make ourselves sound better, more attractive, to others. White lies to avoid causing offence. So it’s not like I’ve done anything out of the ordinary. It’s only human.”

“It’s a beautiful building, but there’s something rotten at its heart.”

“It’s not about where you came from. What kind of shit might have happened to you in the past. It’s about who you are. What you do with the opportunities life presents to you.” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, Death of parent, and Trafficking

Moderate: Infidelity, Kidnapping, Sexism, Classism, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Homophobia

uranaishi's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Self harm, Sexual violence, Stalking, Addiction, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Grief, Kidnapping, Vomit, Abandonment, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Rape, Gun violence, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Medical content, and Pregnancy

tamara_joy's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

Starts off slow; the writing seems basic. But I'm glad I stayed with it. The book gets twistier and twistier! The building is a good character itself.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Infertility, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Classism, and Domestic abuse

rharris86dc's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  It was dark and twisty, with an air of mystery that ran through to the end.  I had a feeling that there would be a plot twist, based on the heavy foreshadowing, but I was still pleasantly surprised that I wasn't able to figure it out on my own.  
I stayed up late to finish, because when I got to a certain point, I couldn't stop and needed to know what happened next.

Spoiler

I did have one issue with the text: after Jess finds out the big secret, the wording she used really irked me.  It was something along the lines of "they made they money from women selling themselves."  When in fact, the women were NOT selling themselves, they were BEING sold, which is a huge difference, and amounts to human trafficking.  I'm kind of appalled that that was not a bigger issue and plot point; it did feel very glossed over, and I think it should have been addressed more seriously.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Drug abuse, Misogyny, and Trafficking

glens's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Ben Daniels, Jess’s half-brother, is a journalist living in a Paris Apartment. Jess is running away from her life and contacts him for an escape hole to be. He agrees reluctantly. No one is at the station to meet her on her arrival, and Ben is not answering her texts or calls. On top of all this, she doesn’t speak French! 

After breaking into his building and apartment, she finds out that he is missing, and the apartment has been cleared out. The story gets told from 5 different points of view, all of which had secrets, ones that mostly, I didn’t guess. None of these characters are reliable, but more because of their secrets than lying.

I found this novel had a lot of high anticipation, but the story evolved quite slowly. The Paris Apartment is well written, but I had to drag myself through the story until the ‘twist’, which is good. 

I am a great fan of Lucy Foley’s work, she is a brilliant author, but this won’t be one of my favourites. 

I would like to thank #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsUK for the opportunity of reading this advanced copy in exchange for my own honest review. This book was due for release on March 3rd, 2022.


Rating 2.5 / 5.0
This book was published in March 2022.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction and Domestic abuse

jenn_reads's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Sexual content, and Misogyny

Minor: Miscarriage

Spoiler

internalized homophobia

kassidypf13's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death of parent, Death, and Kidnapping